Archives for November 2010

Governor Jay Nixon is on his jobs tour across the state and today, he’s here in Kirksville.

Governor’s spokesman Sam Murphy said that the governor wants to see more and more come to northeast Missouri.

Murphy said, “We just continue to see a very strong series of signals from across northeast Missouri — that it is a place where businesses want to invest, where they want to create jobs, and where they want to get our economy growing. Governor Nixon is going to continue to push each and everyday to make northeast Missouri a place where businesses want to create jobs and grow the economy of the future.”

That’s why Nixon and David Kerr, director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, will be here to present the initial recommendations of the Missouri Strategic Initiative for Economic Growth, which is formulating a five-year economic plan for the Show-Me State. They’ll talk about the initiative’s major strategies for creating jobs in high-growth industries and outline the next steps in the planning process.

The Salvation Army in Kirksville is ahead in its fund raising right now.“We’re actually 700 dollars ahead of last year at this point.”Major Bill Hotg said in the first three days of the Red Kettle Campaign, they’ve collected over four thousand dollars and this year’s goal is the same as last year’s — its 48 thousand dollars. He said what they need is volunteer bell ringers.

Hotg said, “If they want to come and ring bells for us, they can either come to the Salvation Army at 1004 West Gardner or they can give us a call at 665-7885, and we can look at the schedule and see what’s open for them and put them to work!”

He said while they do have their usual cast of characters — Kiwanis, scouts and others, they do need you to come and ring a bell for a couple of hours to help them make this year’s goal of 48 thousand dollars to help those in need.

Lewis County Sheriff’s deputies have made another arrest connected with that crash on Sunday that killed an 18 year old Lewistown woman. Sheriff’s officials said that 45 year old James Cannon bought the alcohol that 18 year old Mont L Corbin allegedly drank before crashing his car and injuring 18 year old Sheyenna Sigler. She died from her injuries the next day. Cannon and Corbin are both in the Lewis County Jail, each under 25 thousand dollar cash only bonds.

The signup period for disaster assistance payments related to last year’s excessive moisture is nearing a close. Local Farm Service Agency Executive Director Philip Ayers says signup for payments under the CAP, or Crop Assistance Program, end December 9th. The program provides up to $550-million in disaster assistance to producers of rice, upland cotton, soybeans and sweet potatoes that suffered losses due to excessive moisture in 2009. These payments are not related at all to any losses incurred by farmers in late spring and early summer of this year, due to flooding situations.

Kirksville is one of the communities that will feel the impact if Congress is unable to get the year-end omnibus spending bill passed and has to push through a stop-gap measure. A $750,000 project earmarked for funding by retiring Senator Kit Bond is caught up in the current omnibus measure, and the money will go away if the measure doesn’t pass. It would fund a new health and wellness center for women and children in Kirksville, according to TheHill.com. In an earlier statement issued when the funding was put into the health and human services budget, Bond said the center “will help reduce the fragmentation of services and access barriers to ensure that all women and children are provided the opportunity to receive quality, integrated, and comprehensive preventative and health care services.” It’s part of more than $2-billion dollars in earmarks that would disappear if Republican Leaders, including Bond, stick with party leadership and block the omnibus bill.

With winter fast approaching, MoDot’s work on alternate sixty-three will soon slow down due to the winter weather. MoDot worker Kevin James says that the summer and fall work, however, has been very productive and beneficial to the project.

James says that highway six will close in Spring, after the weather clears up and dirt work will continue to be done on alternate sixty-three until the ground freezes. James says that once winter weather hits the area you can check road conditions at any time, either by internet or phone.

MoDot is currently prepping and checking their salt trucks and snow plows in order to be prepared when the first winter weather hits the area.

Lewis County Sheriff’s officials have arrested a man on a DUI charge after a crash on Sunday that killed his passenger. Missouri Highway Patrol and the sheriff’s department said that 18 year old Mont L Corbin was driving on Highway H, north of Lewistown when he lost control of his vehicle. He was arrested after the crash on Sunday and jail on a DUI charge. His passenger, 18 year old Sheyenna Sigler of Lewistown was taken to the hospital where she died yesterday morning from her injuries as a result of the crash. Corbin was charged with second degree assault for causing serious physical injury by operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. He’s in the Lewis County Jail on a 25 thousand dollar bond.

Missourians who own land line telephones will see their bills decrease. They’ll only go down by two cents a month, but they’ll go down. The Missouri Public Service Commission has reduced the surcharge that you pay to fund Relay Missouri, which is a statewide dual-party telephone relay service for the deaf, hearing-impaired and speech-impaired. You get the charge on your land line phone bill every month, and the PSC staff reviewed what it spends on the service and determined that it can do the same with less. That means, starting in March of next year, you’ll now pay eleven cents a month for Relay Missouri instead of 13 cents a month.

Lewis County Sheriff’s officials have arrested a man on a DUI charge after a crash yesterday that killed his passenger. Missouri Highway Patrol and the sheriff’s department said that 18 year old Mont L Corbin was driving on Highway H, north of Lewistown when he lost control of his vehicle. He was arrested and jail on a DUI charge and his passenger 18 year old Sheyenna Sigler of Lewistown was taken to the hospital. She died this morning from her injuries as a result of the crash. Corbin was charged with second degree assault for causing serious physical injury by operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. He’s in the Lewis County Jail on a 25 thousand dollar bond.

Governor Jay Nixon was at Ardent Outdoor today to announce that the state is giving the company about 100 thousand dollars in economic incentives and training dollars to expand.

“The governor was able to provide through our enhanced enterprise zone program and our customized training program and that investment in state resources is going to help Ardent dramatically expand their production line.

Nixon’s spokesman Sam Murphy said the company will be making the big investment in equipment.